Loony
by Misses Prongs
Summary: As a grown woman...no, it was wrong to judge her. She wasn't the same. He could see it once the image of what he wanted her to be had been washed away. Different. Different but still Luna. Different but still the same.


**Disclaimer: I do not own anything Harry Potter related.**

**Loony**

It had been years since Neville Longbottom had last seen her. Hell, it had been years since he'd last heard from her. There had been no notice in the post updating her life. No column in the paper announcing that she had become a renowned wizarding naturalist. Nothing stating on how she was holding up after the Battle at Hogwarts. And certainly nothing about her meeting Newt Scamander's grandson and falling in love with him. Well, nothing until the wedding announcement had come, that is.

At first, Neville hadn't known what to do. He'd held the ornate yellow leaf in his hand and simply looked at it with glossy eyes. Luna Lovegood, it had said. Luna Lovegood and Rolf Scamander. He had racked his brain for anything that might have been a clue about the mysterious man. After a quick owl to Hermione Weasley, he'd found all about his famous heritage. The descendant of an author that wrote a book which nearly every student in Hogwarts read was quite a formidable match

Of course, that had struck Neville as a sign that the man was rather intelligent. And what was a better quality in a man than that? Especially for a Ravenclaw. Women always liked to be around intelligent men, Neville found. Especially if they had active minds themselves. And Luna had the most active mind he knew of. Perhaps not commonly so, but beneath the theories of Crumple-Horned Snorkack, he thought that her mind rivaled that of Hermione, whom he acknowledged as the brightest witch he knew.

At the time, thoughts had suddenly swarmed Neville's head of his own bright spots and strengths. He was accomplished with Herbology. And, after all, he'd helped Harry Potter defeat the evil Lord Voldemort, did he not? He was clever. And he was brave. And, he'd thought bitterly, he was finally able to prove himself to his Gran. Finally able to redeem himself on his own...to make himself worth his parents and what they'd suffered. He'd wielded the sword of Gryffindor. Fought against the Death Eaters that tried to kill him and his friends. He'd rebelled against the "professors" that the Dark Lord had established in his seventh year of Hogwarts. He'd beheaded Voldemort's pet snake and Horcrux for Merlin's sake! How was she able to choose this...this _boy_over him?

But, Neville forced himself to remember, he was being utterly ridiculous. He had a girlfriend. He was perfectly happy with his girlfriend. And she loved him. Oh, how he could tell that Hannah loved him. The way she looked at him said it all. And it nearly made him squirm every time she directed her large brown eyes towards him. They would glow brightly and obtain a rather shiny, all too girly look to them. It wasn't to say that he didn't care for her, because he did. Their relationship just seemed to be at the awkward phase where one person was more enraptured with the partner than the other.

What had bothered Neville the most however, was that two invitations to Luna's wedding ended up on his kitchen counter. One addressed neatly "Mr. Neville Longbottom" and the other "Ms. Hannah Abbott". Both stated that the addressee was entitled to one guest. One guest. Neville wouldn't need that with the only woman that would be his guest already invited. It meant that Luna hadn't cared enough to even check up on Neville's relationship status. Perhaps she just hadn't known, or didn't think that he would be with someone from Hogwarts that she would also be inviting to her wedding. And he wasn't sure how he felt about it. Was it that she was assuming he was single because she didn't bother checking up on him? Or was she perhaps hoping that he still was?

He'd shaken those thoughts out of his head at once. No. She didn't have any thoughts for him romantically. She was getting _married_, for Merlin's sake. She wasn't thinking about some boy from Hogwarts. He should be honored enough that he was even invited to the ceremony with how little they'd heard from each other.

But as he sat on a folding lawn chair in the exotic backyard of the Scamanders, he couldn't clear his head on how things would be if this was his wedding. First off, while the family had a lovely setting, Neville had always been partial to nuptials in a chapel. He wasn't sure exactly whom his best man would be, but it certainly wouldn't be the man standing up front whose skin looked so pink and raw, it must have been the first time he'd showered thoroughly in a long while. Other than that, he felt like the wedding had been completely up to Luna. She told him once that she believed sunflowers and yellow were fit for a wedding. So Neville wasn't surprised to see clusters of the flower scattered about and the white chairs, like the one he sat upon, elegantly tied with gauzy yellow ribbon.

And when Luna entered and all eyes turned towards her, Neville couldn't help himself from grinning widely. Behind him, he caught a glance of Ron and Hermione looking watery eyed as they were surely remembering their own wedding, while Ginny and Harry exchanged looks of pity and relief as they were happy not to be in Luna's shoes again. Not, Neville was quick to notice, that Luna was wearing any shoes.

Her small feet poked out beneath her light dress. It was simple and Neville approved of it completely. Rather than wearing the ivory that was customary of brides, she was bedecked in the palest of yellows, which offset her pale blonde hair.

"Oh, wow," Hannah breathed beside Neville, suddenly taking up his hand. "She looks lovely."

Neville turned toward her with the smile no longer on his lips. And even though both Luna and Hannah were attractive women with light hair, wide eyes, and similar face shapes, he'd never felt like there were two more separate people in the world. He knew that should be more inclined towards Hannah, but he couldn't bear to not think of Luna. It reminded him of his days when he was still at Hogwarts. In his third year he'd nursed conflicting crushes on both Hermione and Ginny. At the time he thought that it was weird simply thinking that two girls were pretty at the same time, much less liking them. Now...now there was a fairly good chance that he could be on the brink of love with two.

"No. She looks beautiful," he deadpanned. Because she did. He wasn't exactly savvy in the ways of women, nor did he pretend to be, but he could easily tell that most of the makeup she was wearing wasn't to hide or glaze over flaws, but rather to accentuate her features. Her eyes seemed more gray and her skin more like porcelain.

Hannah was taken aback for a second, but she immediately after smiled and nodded in agreement. "You're right," she whispered back as Luna gracefully passed them on her father's arm. "She's no longer the silly little girl that we knew in Hogwarts. No longer Loony Lovegood."

She turned back to the ceremony and watched. After a moment, Neville turned as well and, with Hannah's words still hanging in his mind, looked at Luna again. She wasn't the girl that he remembered. Yes, she looked like her. Still pretty and delicate, but with features that had aged. It had, after all, been a decade and a handful of years since the Battle at Hogwarts, wasn't that around the last time he'd seen her? Ginny had been in her year in school, and she'd already birthed three children by Harry Potter. And that slightly dazed look that she used to have, the one that made her look as though she was seeing something invisible to everyone else, was replaced with something more grounded. Still whimsical, yes, but not so much as though her head was so far in the clouds that her feet were no longer on the ground.

The Luna in his mind wouldn't have been looking at her groom, or if she was, her gaze would have been focused several feet above his head as she saw some unseen creature. But there she was, eyes steady on Rolf with a small smile across her lips. And Rolf...he wasn't who Neville would have pictured her with either. In his mind's eye, it was some sort of mix of a hippie and himself, but Rolf didn't seem like either. He was quite a bit older than what he'd been expecting, looking as though he was in his late thirties. He seemed likable in his dress robes and with his sandy hair that refused to stay put even though he used what looked like globs of hair product and maybe even a little magic.

She had changed. Then again, so had Hannah. If someone told him back in Hogwarts that he would someday be living with and dating with Hannah Abbott he would have stared blankly at them and hoped they were kidding. This was the girl who in third year was convinced that Sirius Black could turn himself into a flowering shrub! But she'd matured, after all she was only been thirteen at the time. And the Luna that Neville knew was only a teenager as well. As a grown woman...no, it was wrong to judge her. She wasn't the same. He could see it once the image of what he wanted her to be had been washed away.

Different. Different but still Luna. Different but still the same.

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